Health insurance...confused, where do I begin?

[PumpkinZulu]

Okay so I'm going to sound like a total ditz but I have absolutely no idea I am thinking about purchasing health insurance for myself. I have spoken to a few people and from those convos it sounds like it may be worth it just for the extras alone. Basically, I want it for ttc - Chinese docs, acupuncture, fertility speacialist. Do these things fall within extras?? I know I have no need for private health insurance for having a baby, and never ever will. I have ambo cover, but the rest I just can't afford and justify at this point in time.

Also, what is excess? Gosh I'm so out of the loop with this sort of stuff lol, so excuse the ignorance. I've had a look on iselect, found a few policies for around $20 to $30 a month; but I'm not sure how much I'll need for what iykwim. Like I said, I'd like the insurance purely for fertility speacialists, tcm, accupuncture etc. Is this at all possible? Anyone want to help out a very confused pumpkin with a run down? xx

[~Kim~]

I'm pretty sure you can get just extras cover, but I don't think it covers and fertility or pregnancy stuff (in fact I'm 100%positive). You'll need hospital and extras for that.

You need to work out if what you will be reimbursed will be worth the outlay of the PHI I guess. Every policy will have a list of the amounts of stuff they will cover. For example some will only cover about $15 with of visit for accupuncture, other will cover more but often they cost more too. We have just gotten rid of our PHI because we worked out that what we claimed over the course of 15years was less than one years cost of PHI. Yes there's always the maybes, but we have a good savings plan so I'm not particularly worried.

Excesses - If you take out hospital cover the cost of your PHI drops if you opt to have an excess for when you go to hossy. Ours was $200 per visit. Not sure how much it dropped our fee by though.

[PumpkinZulu]

Thanks Kim. So you don't reckon just extras will cover the things I want (tcm, accupuncture, massage, fertility spesh)? Darn! I know I don't need anything birth or pregnancy related for hospital, as I'm planning a homebirth and all my appointments etc at my gp who does shared care with the royal womens.

[Kazbah]

There's a website, iSelect (google it!) and it compares all the different types of cover. Might be worth going on there and having a look around...

[anney]

You would see the fertility specialist as an outpatient so not covered by any type of health insurance, just medicare. for the other complementary therapies, you need to check out the fine print for each different fund. for example, my chinese therapist who I go to for a few things, used to have to put something (cant rememeber what, on my account for me to get anything back). they often have a yearly cap on those therapies too so as Kim says, you need to do your sums to make sure it is worth it.

[Trillian]

I wouldn't recommend iSelect because they have a lot of little rinky-dink insurers that would pay bugger all back if you made a claim. One thing I have learnt about insurance is you get what you pay for. Some may have cheap premiums but they may not pay you back much either, or they may have a really high excess. You could go to 'productreview' and put in the insurers name and if anyone has posted a review about that company it will show up. Plus you have to be really careful with trying to claim back on natural therapies. Our PHI is excellent - we can claim back 80% of the cost of Naturopathy, Remedial massage, homeopathy, herbalism, chinese herbalism, iridology, nutrition, aromatherapy, shiatsu, reflexology, kinesiology, bowen, myotherapy and exercise physiology BUT they will only pay out a maximum of $400 per person per year and ONLY for consultation costs, not for the herbs/homeopathics. So it's great if you only see them a few times a year, but if you saw them a lot, once they paid you the total $400 for that year then you can't claim for the rest of it. We are with GUhealth